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Anyone worried about Defensive End depth?


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I think this is an area where you might see a veteran signed in week 2. A vet similar to when we plucked Gilberry a few years ago. No point in grabbing a guy for week 1 and guaranteeing the whole contract. DE was definitely an area of concern heading into this season and I think the team thinks the same as they did look heavily into quite a few DEs at draft time but the draft never fell that way.

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About Margus... Yeah, he catches a lot of flack on here, Margus Haters, etc. and I have always liked the big lug (always the rebel),

Stated before and one thing I have noticed is that he is always in the opposing team's offensive backfield.  He is a player who must be dealt with and neutralized often taking up two or more blockers.  While they are occupied with him, the linebackers are getting to the running back or quarterback and they are making the plays and getting the credit.  The linebackers are making the plays in the backfield/at the line/little gain rather than a half dozen yards down the field.  So vs the Jets, if and when he is in there, I am watching to see how many times he is in the backfield vs. Captain Peko getting stood up and pushed back at the line doing his dancing bear routine.

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37 minutes ago, High School Harry said:

About Margus... Yeah, he catches a lot of flack on here, Margus Haters, etc. and I have always liked the big lug (always the rebel),

Stated before and one thing I have noticed is that he is always in the opposing team's offensive backfield.  He is a player who must be dealt with and neutralized often taking up two or more blockers.  While they are occupied with him, the linebackers are getting to the running back or quarterback and they are making the plays and getting the credit.  The linebackers are making the plays in the backfield/at the line/little gain rather than a half dozen yards down the field.  So vs the Jets, if and when he is in there, I am watching to see how many times he is in the backfield vs. Captain Peko getting stood up and pushed back at the line doing his dancing bear routine.

Dude, you are insane. He literally does none of that.

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I'm more concerned about the talent than the depth if that makes any sense...let me try to explain. Honestly, I think we could grab a guy off of the street and get what Margus gives us.  The guy just isn't a good football player.  If that's true, we've got all the depth in the world as we could sign anyone to give us what Margus gives us, we just don't have a lot of talent at that position.  I haven't seen enough of W. Clarke to tell if he's a player or not, so right now I'd say he's in the same boat.

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2 hours ago, Lucid said:

Dude, you are insane. He literally does none of that.

I've seen almost none of that. Also the hilarity of comparing Hunt in backfield who is a DE and is supposed to rush vs Peko in the backfield who has the job of just clogging the middle and taking on blockers. I have to believe he was just trolling.

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23 minutes ago, Steve4192 said:

I'm no more worried about DE depth than I am about WR or TE depth.  Dunlap/Eifert/Green are elite level players, and the Bengals are fucked if any of them aren't available at the end of the season.  There is a MASSIVE dropoff between those guys and their backups.

Big drop off at WR and DE but the guys behind Dunlap and MJ are total asshats. The guys behind AJ are still talented just very unrpoven and some raw. They aren't AJ (no one has an AJ behind an AJ) but they have abilities. TE depth i LOVE. Kroft would be a starter for most teams he's really good and underated. CJ Uzomah has skills but is raw. He looked much improved in preseason compared to last year though.

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1 hour ago, TimKrumrieFan said:

. Kroft would be a starter for most teams he's really good and underated. 

I see this sentiment often and I want to buy into it. I'm afraid we just don't know enough about him to make that sort of claim. What is the balance of evidence to support this?

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26 minutes ago, thezerawkid said:

I see this sentiment often and I want to buy into it. I'm afraid we just don't know enough about him to make that sort of claim. What is the balance of evidence to support this?

I watched him quite a bit in college. He also did a solid job last year in his snaps when Eifert missed or both played. He is 10x the blocker Eifert is (not a tough task though but he's good) and has extremely reliable hands. He's not slow for a TE but he's not going to smoke guys 40 yards up the seam either. 

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40 minutes ago, TimKrumrieFan said:

I watched him quite a bit in college. He also did a solid job last year in his snaps when Eifert missed or both played. He is 10x the blocker Eifert is (not a tough task though but he's good) and has extremely reliable hands. He's not slow for a TE but he's not going to smoke guys 40 yards up the seam either. 

Well, hopefully we get to see more of this over the next week or two, get Eif back, have a strong showing from Jeremy Hill, and utilize two tight end sets quite a bit. 

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4 hours ago, TimKrumrieFan said:

Big drop off at WR and DE but the guys behind Dunlap and MJ are total asshats. The guys behind AJ are still talented just very unrpoven and some raw. They aren't AJ (no one has an AJ behind an AJ) but they have abilities. TE depth i LOVE. Kroft would be a starter for most teams he's really good and underated. CJ Uzomah has skills but is raw. He looked much improved in preseason compared to last year though.

I don't see how you can say the guys behind AJ are any more talented than the guys behind Dunlap.  The only difference is that they are shiny and new and we haven't seen their warts yet.  What makes you think those guys at WR are any more immune to being busts than the guys at DE?  It wasn't that long ago that Bengals fans wearing rose-colored glasses were claiming that Clarke and Hunt were going to be world beaters.

 

The same goes, to a lesser degree, for the guys backing up Eifert.  I liked what little we saw out of Kroft last year, but it is laughable to claim he would be starting for most NFL teams, and Uzomah looked great in camp practices, but didn't do dick in preseason games.  I've seen nothing from either of them to indicate they are the kind of gamebreaking playmakers that Eifert is.

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7 hours ago, TimKrumrieFan said:

Huh? It is literally the only position on the roster that they don't have depth.

 

Really? I'd say the only positions on offense with any depth are RB & QB.  Our 2nd-string WR's have 5 NFL receptions between all of them (all 5 Wright), rookie RT, hell even our starting interior OL is suspect let alone the backups.  Starting TE is out for who knows how long.  Defensively our secondary is already banged-up, new starter at SS, V. Rey starting at WLB though at least we know that's temporary. No healthy true NT behind Peko.  Only reason DE concerns me at all is because Hunt is somehow still on the roster. 

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2 hours ago, TimKrumrieFan said:

I watched him quite a bit in college. He also did a solid job last year in his snaps when Eifert missed or both played. He is 10x the blocker Eifert is (not a tough task though but he's good) and has extremely reliable hands. He's not slow for a TE but he's not going to smoke guys 40 yards up the seam either. 

I watched Marco Battaglia in college and thought he was the best receiving TE I have ever seen in collegiate ball.  Turns out, being a stud in college doesn't mean a whole lot at the pro level.

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2 minutes ago, Steve4192 said:

I watched Marco Battaglia in college and thought he was the best receiving TE I have ever seen in collegiate ball.  Turns out, being a stud in college doesn't mean a whole lot at the pro level.

There is an example for every scenario. You casually ignored the success that Kroft had for them last year. It isn't like I called Kroft a future pro bowler but he's no slouch at all and tons of teams would love to have him.

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2 minutes ago, TimKrumrieFan said:

There is an example for every scenario. You casually ignored the success that Kroft had for them last year. It isn't like I called Kroft a future pro bowler but he's no slouch at all and tons of teams would love to have him.

I didn't ignore it.  I specifically mentioned I liked what I have seen out of him so far.  But six starts and 11 receptions is hardly a convincing body of work.

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7 minutes ago, Steve4192 said:

I didn't ignore it.  I specifically mentioned I liked what I have seen out of him so far.  But six starts and 11 receptions is hardly a convincing body of work.

There is too much tape of Hunt/Clarke being duds. Kroft showed more positive plays in his 6 starts than Hunt/Clarke have put on film combined in their entire careers so far. Which is way more positively convincing than the proof that we are ROYALLY fucked at DE if Dunlap or MJ goes down.

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